Give me Twitter or Give me Death. Confessions of a Twitter Addict

This is a big moment for Twitter, as they have announced their long-awaited plans on how to monetize the service (using advertising). I find this most welcome, as many Twitter users had been worrying how long could the service stay in business without a legitimate business model and revenue stream. Here's to Twitter and hoping their ad model proves successful.

This is also a milestone moment for me. I started Tweeting in 2008 and have steadily grown myself a nice following, well on par with many fellow bloggers and experts in the mobile space (over 2,400 followers now) and I am listed in over 230 lists. Those are not the big milestone for me, however, it is the astonishing stat, that I am about to pass the 10,000th tweet today. Wow. Ten thousand updates to Twitter. Over two years thats 14 every day. But those who follow me know that some days I do nothing, but other days its like a never-ending overflow of tweets and retweets, easily passing 100 per day. I have had many followers write to me asking me to not post that much haha.

So lets celebrate Twitter here, and have a few confessions of a Twitterista. Yes I am now addicted to Twitter and cannot imagine my online persona without it.

I DID NOT GET TWITTER AT FIRST

I have to admit first, that when I saw Twitter and started to use it, I did not see its point at all. I was bewildered of why so many of my trusted peers seemed to love it. I did notfind value in what seemed like pointless updates of 'I am at the bus stop' or 'my train is late' or 'I am having lunch' or 'I am going to the toilet' or 'I am now reading this article' et



It wasn't until I had discussions with some friends I trusted who were active on Twitter, and I learned that Twitter could be a personal broadcast channel, that I started to understand. Then I saw what Stephen Fry was doing, that he would comment on his life on Twitter, but he hadn't stopped blogging or writing articles, and he would use Twitter to inform his followers when he had something new on his blog etc.

That was the opening for me. Now Twitter started to make sense. If I built myself a reasonable following, I could then drive some of them to my blog and announce upcoming books, conference speakerships etc. That made sense.

RETWEETS ARE FOUNDATION OF TWITTER

Then believing that whatever I do, I want to do well, so next came the stage of learning from the masters and observing them and developing my style. I learned (and observed) that some were very often retweeting what they saw was interesting or worthwhile. I picked up the habit of retweeting anything that was 'professionally' interesting ie it dealt with mobile or digital convergence or media etc; and occasionally also retweeting something I thought was particularly funny.

This dramatically increased the number of activities I had on Twitter. But as I was still learning it, I also saw that some on Twitter were very active retweeters, and that it seemed they also were getting far more engagement and discussion. The more you 'put in' into Twitter - and often a retweet of something valuable was far better than a personal tweet about yourself - the more you 'got out of' Twitter.

It became very clear to me, that often the person whose Tweet I had just retweeted, would get back to me, thanking or discussing the matter. And people would retweet further items I had retweeted. Then network economics kicked in. If my 'reach' of my network was larger than the original person, it would end up that I drove far more traffic to that person and discussion. Similarly every so often, one of my tweets (or retweets) would be picked up by some of the 'big names' with very large networks - and I'd instantly get many new followers, and often many direct comments and contacts.

Then I started to also receive comments in the style of 'Tomi you may like this' or 'Tomi what do you think of this'. Suddenly Twitter developed a whole new meaning to me. As my network grew, and started to have meaningful presence in markets, countries, industries and age demographics that I might usually not be involved in, I started to gain new automatic feeds of whats happening in 'my' industry.

This was about a year ago, when I observed that Twitter was becoming a major source of my market insights. That by the time I saw someone discussing it at for example Forum Oxford, more likely than not, the topic had already been discussed on Twitter. As a 'futurist' and forecaster, there is nothing more valuable than a radar into breaking news. And Twitter had achieved this ability and by last Autumn, Twitter had become my first and main source of breaking news in my industry.

By then I had developed my way of doing retweets, where I took the existing Tweet, and posted my comment first into the 140 characters, so I'd say something like 'Microsoft getting real with mobile' which I'd add to the beginning of the retweet, before adding the tweet I had seen from someone who discussed the new Pink (ie Kin) smartphones for example.

And as 140 characters is very very limited in the ability to discuss anything in any detail, I also picked up the habit of adding comments, after the Tweet, if that retweet warranted it. This way I learned to 'cheat' haha, to bypass Twitter's 140 character limit, and be able to discuss something in 280 characters or 420 or 560 or even 1,400 characters (ie ten follow-up comments)

CHANGED MY BLOGGING

Then I noticed another interesting pattern with many of my friends. Our blogging activity declined to an alarming degree. Many very frequent bloggers had quit blogging altogether and many others reduced their blogging frequency from daily to weekly or less.  I had my own aspects with it too. And I noticed also that the frequency of postings at Forum Oxford also declined.

So many of those things that I had wanted to 'record' in passing, a given tidbit of news or statistics or updates, that had prompted blog updates, had now already been covered on Twitter, so there seemed no point in also posting that on this blog.

What happened, rather, is that I noticed my blog entries had swollen to be enormous in length. It was clear, that when I did blog, I would tackle topics that were 'important' and to do those topics justice (this being a very complex industry) I would then write with far more detail and facts. And as the Twitter following was growing quite rapidly, with constantly new followers who hadn't heard of me, I also knew that many who would follow a link to a blog story, would arrive to read their first ever blog article by me. So differing from the long-standing 'loyal' readership here at the Communities Dominate blog, we were receiving very many readers who would post comments saying 'its my first time here' etc.

For them I felt I really had to go back in history, show the relevance of given topics, and to do a lot of the basics again and again. The blog stories got longer and longer. But I was writing to a new audience, many who didn't understand this space, and especially did not understand mobile, the most complex part of the converging media, IT, internet, banking etc industries.

I found that I was re-focusing far more on my roots, about mobile and telecoms, and not covering all that was happening in digital media, IT, internet online multiplayer virtual etc spaces. Mostly only if those touched upon mobile. Yet with Twitter I had far more 'issues' to deal with daily than I had ever seen before. Almost every retweet could cause a new blog story - and often many retweets did cause me to mention past blog articles I had written that did cover a given topic area.

THINKING OUT LOUD

Now I start my day with Twitter if I can. It is a great way to take a 'first bite' at any breaking news in the industry. It forces me to address the issues as they come - thus I am forced to follow the industry intensely and keep abreast of it. And it allows me to process the developments as they come. In a very literal sense, my Tweets are my thoughts outloud, I am 'thinking outloud' about my industry and letting my followers 'listen in' to what I think.

It has several great benefits, perhaps the greatest of which is the instant feedback. On the blog there were sometimes weeks that nobody posted a comment and I had no real way to know if there was even interest in what I wrote. On Twitter the feedback is immediate. People that I respect are there to comment instantly (or to retweet what I wrote). Sometimes they will retweet with a caution, that they don't totally agree with my point etc. Very valuable feedback.

Then there are the thousands who just follow and from whom there is a wonderful daily trickle of comments and questions that reveal exactly how well accepted or not a given point I made, may be. I learned quickly that certain points were not well known, and would need follow-up comments.

And then that wonderful feeling of 'my fans' who have followed me for long enough on Twitter (or knew me from before on the blog or from my books) who can anticipate what I would say, and we get those nice Tweets where a follower retweets something adding me to the tweet and asking, what do I think etc. And then there are those who are fans of mine who don't know I am on Twitter, and who quote me from my books or a conference presentation or some slides they have found. That is really sweet for the ego. And of course I reach out to them and start to follow them on Twitter - which often stuns them haha.

But yes, I am thinking outloud. Then that thought on Twitter gets refined. Sometimes when I see that bit of news, I know I have to blog about it. But that is rare. Its far more common, that I comment on something, and don't think much of it, but see the reaction it gets in the Twittersphere, and only after its reaction, I feel I should blog about it. That happens ever more frequently. That blog articles are caused by the reaction of my followers on Twitter not my initial observation about the news item.

Then we get the natural progression. A good story on Twitter becomes a blog entry. A good blog story is also posted on Forum Oxford. Good discussion of blogs and Forum Oxford comments mean I have to do slides, and add that topic into my next presentations. And what works on the stage and gets good audience interest, ends up in the next book. So what my Twitter followers get, is the very first rough draft idea-development for my next book. Only a small subset of my Tweets end up in the next book, but my books are reference volumes for years to come (I am already quoted in over 80 books by other authors haha). My Twitter followers and fans get the world's first peek into what might be in the next book. I believe that is a good value to them.

IN A CONNECTED AGE, SHARING INFO IS POWER

Those who have read my books or followed me for a longer while, know my personal motto - 'In a connected age, sharing information is power." That quotation of mine is in every one of my books, and I print it on the bottom of my business cards. Its a philosophy. Most young people subscribe to a philosophy similar to that, when it comes to digital information.

There are those of an age before social networking, who believed in a thousands-of-years old adage of information and power, that 'witholding information is power' - which is how bureaucrats in the Roman empire built their power. It was how all of the most horrendous dictatorships of history had held onto power. They found out nasty information about individuals, that was used against them; and they did not let their citizens have access to open information which would expose abuses of those in power. An open and unrestricted press was the antidote to such government abuses.

And I have found in my professional career, that giving out 'everything I possibly know' about any topic in my books, at public conferences, here on the blog and now on Twitter, etc, has brought an overabundance of riches to me, in terms of information that I would never have found by myself. So in line with my philosophy, every one of my slide sets ever given out, has 'bonus info' in the back, with bonus stats, bonus recommended websites, bonus books recommended etc. And again, my fans appreciate that.

Most of all, there are those who are stunned at how open I am on this blog and my emails and on Twitter, with 'facts'. Most of my 'peers' in consulting and the industry analyst space are unsure how to face 'social networks' with their valuable insights and knowledge. So they tend to hedge their bets, they give a little bit out for free, and save the rest for their 1,000 dollar reports or their consulting jobs. I don't. I blog here regularly with the freshest, most complete stats possible. And beyond that, I pepper my public presentations and articles and books with so many stats and facts as I possibly can fit into the story. And then after that, for those who really can't get enough, and want to know 'all the numbers' - I now have my TomiAhonen Almanac 2010 with 84 tables and charts, at the ridiculously low cost of 10 Euros.

In a connected age, sharing information is power. I have made a life of that philosophy and it in turn has given me a career. I give out numbers and facts and stats regularly, yet I receive more than 3 times, perhaps 4 times as much facts, stats and data in return. Some of it private info that I can't publish, others links to valuable data sources I never knew existed, even others are facts and stats collected by random peers who 'also have a hobby' of collecting info about the industry, and who just want to share with me. If mobile is the most complex industry ever, far more complex a science than rocket science; and if the ability to make money in mobile is the hardest part of mobile - and if knowledge of those issues is valuable, then indeed I am the wealthiest man on the planet.  And this philosophy has served me well, as I keep on spreading news, information, facts and stats about the digitally converging industries and find, that the more I share, the more I gain. Truly it is so, sharing information is power.

TWITTER AND ME

For me, the value of Twitter is most of all the instant commentary and retweets. Is a given story relevant or not, is it of interest or not. Should I study that matter more. Will my followers care.

As incidential benefits I also now have it as my early-warning radar of breaking news globally for my industry. I also have it as a personal promotion channel. And Twitter serves to spread my brand to new audiences, and has already generated new business contacts for me that resulted in new paid jobs.

I love Twitter. I could not imagine my professional career without it. But 10,000 tweets, boy, that is a lot of text. You know its over 200,000 words - thats two hardcover books worth. Just in tweets. Wow. Thats a lot..

For anyone reading this blog who doesn't follow me yet on Twitter, I am @tomiahonen and the fastest way to get me to follow you on Twitter is if you retweet something I tweeted or retweeted. If you are new to Twitter and would like to see who I consider most worth following, check out the three lists I have. And when you find something on Twitter that I retweeted that was of interest to you, please retweet it, or do also say hello on Twitter from time to time, will be most happy to talk with any followers and fans there (or here on this blog)

Comments

[Sami]

The #1 thing that most annoys me with Twitter is the character limit. It's okay to encourage short postings but it's not okay to have arbitrary limits (and the limit is arbitrary nowadays) that forces people to use URL-shorteners, "textspeak" and other annoying things. If Twitter lifted the limit, I might consider it.

I think your tweets act as example that the limit is a problem - recent things you posted like "(link next)", "Next tweets are.." etc. It would just be so much easier for you and your followers to have them all there with no need to reference the next tweets..

[Polly]

I think your tweets act as example that the limit is a problem - recent things you posted like "(link next)", "Next tweets are.." etc. It would just be so much easier for you and your followers to have them all there with no need to reference the next tweets..

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I think your tweets act as example that the limit is a problem - recent things you posted like "(link next)", "Next tweets are.." etc. It would just be so much easier for you and your followers to have them all there with no need to reference the next tweets..

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I do nothing, but other days its like a never-ending overflow of tweets and retweets, easily passing 100 per day. I have had many

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Ten thousand updates to Twitter. Over two years thats 14 every day. But those who follow me know that some days I do nothing, but other days its like a never-ending overflow of tweets and retweets, easily passing 100 per day. I have

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Stephen Fry was doing, that he would comment on his life on Twitter, but he hadn't stopped blogging or writing articles, and he would

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[kimya]

en thousand updates to Twitter. Over two years thats 14 every day. But those who follow me know that some d

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legitimate business model and revenue stream. Here's to Twitter and hoping their ad model proves successful.

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I do nothing, but other days its like a never-ending overflow of tweets and retweets, easily I have had many followers write to me asking me to not post that much haha.

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clarifications. followers write to me asking me to not post that much haha.

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Microsoft; and still others who have not reported huge smartphone growth who could

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This information is really good and I will say will always be helpful if we try it risk free. So if you can back it up. That will really help us all. And this might

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would just be so much easier for you and your followers to have them all there with no need to reference the next tweets..

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would just be so much easier for you and your followers to have them all there with